Roatan Shark Dive Question

Planning to got to Roatan in December and I have read some threads on the shark dive in the island and how they sell you a video of your dive, but my question is: Will they let me take my own U/W video camera into the dive?

Save your money ... ask your DM to take you to a place called "Enchanted Forest" and take your own shark videos. These won't be ones you get to feed (hopefully) ... but if you'll sit still for a few minutes you'll have about a half-dozen 7-9 foot reef sharks come almost within touching distance.

At least, they did for our little group ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

I think you might enjoy the shark feed dive - and there's a writeup on it in the latest issue of 'Fathoms'. But beware, it is pricey! And, best suggestion I have is for you to e-mail the dive operator on whether they will allow you to use your own videography equipment. If theirs is 'broken' as was the info we received when we did this dive, your rig would provide the only videography of the dive! When we did this dive in April, we weren't offered the video, and no videographer was put on our boat. My wife took lots of still pictures. We were told after returning from the dive the video apparatus was 'broken', but I'll bet it was working fine for the next outing. As it was, my wife and I were the only 2 divers present for the second scheduled outing that day - hmmm, only 1 copy could be sold.

The group before us were reviewing their video footage while we were suiting up. The non-'local' folks at this operation we dealt with had limited English and it seemed even more limited Spanish comprehension. You will need to be very careful they understand how much weight you want / need. I told them how much, in both pounds and kilograms, in English & Spanish, but they would only hand me 2 LB, as 'extra weight', until I took the DM to my BC, pointed at the empty integrated weight pocket, open and ready to receive weights, and said "Zero!" before they would give either of us any weight beyond 2 LB each.

It took them almost an hour in the cool rain to find their mooring buoy - it was a good thing we were wearing 3/2 mm full wetsuits for the ride out & back. The air temperature (70's) was lower than the water temperature (81 F) that day. The misty rain obscured the land, and they depended on landmarks to navigate and find their mooring buoy. I asked the boat driver, a 'local' with a good command of English and of course fluent Spanish, why they didn't use a GPS on their boat if the buoy was difficult to find. The answer was "we have one, but we cannot use it." ???

While we were out on the dive, someone at the shop appropriated my boat shoes and placed them in the shop inventory. It took a while to track them down - then there they were. They were a less than US$5 purchase before the trip, so no real big loss, but I knew they were with our stuff before we left the dock. We've never had this happen before, anywhere we've traveled. If you have a lock on your luggage, like a TSA approved lock, you may want to take it with you to put on the locker you put your clothees etc. in. Or maybe use a Zip tie for the locker.

No offers of water, anything, for us as dive customers - I asked after we got back from the dive. Bring your own beverages for staying hydrated. No towels either- I asked - so bring your own towels as well.

I enjoyed the dive, but not the dive operator.

We did the shark dive from Coco View Resort in March with Waihuka Adventure Diving. I don't usually agree with feeding wild animals, but I just had to try the shark dive, because everybody was raving about it. Basically, they took a bucket down there, took off the lid, then let the sharks 'feed themselves'. No hand feeding, and there were only two small peices of fish in there. 12 or 13 good sized gray reef sharks showed up. It was an AMAZING experience, and I have an new respect for sharks.

As for the video, I have no idea if you could bring your own video camera. It would be worth asking, though. A lot of people, including myself, had still cameras, but nobody in our group brought a video camera. We did buy the video (for around $45), and it was worth it. Good way to impress friends and freak out family. ) Plus, all of our still pictures turned out WAY too blue (damn you, white balance!!!), so I was glad to have the video because the color was so much better.

Thanks for the info guys! And for sharing your pictures. Great pics!

I was at CCV in March as well and we did the Waihuka Adventure shark dive. There were at least two people on our dives with their own video cameras. The operators had no problem with it at all. That dive was VERY well organized with a great pre-dive briefing. I don't remember the cost, maybe $60. I thought it was a steal. One of the best dive experiences ever for me. We had about 25 sharks on our dive. They were everywhere! Very cool. Highly recommended!

BTW, we bought the DVD that the operator (Antonio?) shot. I think it was around $40. We split it with another couple and made a copy when we got home. It was very worthwhile. They have a very high quality camera and the results were excellent.

Here's a link to a magazine write-up from Sport Diver.

http://www.sportdiver.com/article.jsp?ID=33587

One thing we did get to do, and maybe it was because there were only 2 of us plus the dive master in the water, was actually swim among the sharks, circling with them around the bait bucket, before settling back down on the sand for the opening of the bucket.

The DM first set the bucket down in the sand, which has a few holes punched in the lid, while we kneeled on the sandy patch with a coral head to our backs. The sharks and jacks came in and agglomerated around the bucket area fairly quickly. Then, the DM indicated for us to swim around in a circle, and started doing so himself. We did literally get 'face to face' with these sharks - I mean a hands' breadth away with out touching them, often looking them right in the eye from such a close distance, and it was a real experience to swim like this in such close proximity - it was similar to a dive we did in French Polynesia with silvertip sharks there, but no bait bucket. I kept my fingers tucked under my arms, my wife kept her hands on her still camera. We did this for quite a while, and I'd have to say this was probably my favorite part of the dive!

Then, the DM signals us to kneel back down on the sand, our backs to the coral head. The DM takes the lid off the bucket, and a short flurry of activity ensues, with one of the larger & more exuberant sharks getting a case of 'bucket head' for a few moments, emerging with a fish tail poking out its snout, which quickly diappeared. Then, within 2 or 3 more minutes, the sharks went back to their routine sharky lives, and we did a slow ascent up the mooring line, safety stop, and back into the boat. The mist had dissipated while we were underwater, so the crew was able to take us straight back to the dock in short order, unlike the ride out.

My computer logged 34 minutes bottom time, 72 FSW max depth, 57 FSW average depth. The sharks varied from maybe just under 3' long to just over 6' long - when you're swimming this closely with them, with references like your buddy & DM to gauge them by, you can get a pretty accurate idea of the sizes.

We're still waiting for our still pictures to come back from Sea Processing - I'm anxious to see how they turned out.

We had the shark dives 'comped' to us by the owners of Reef House Resort where we were staying, because their boat had problems that day, so we went to do the shark dive to give them time to work on the boat. We were told the regular price was US$75 per diver for this 1 tank dive, and US$45 per copy of the video footage they shoot (if they shoot it). There was a setup for partial pressure blending of Nitrox, but we dove air for this dive, so I have no idea what extra cost there might be for Nitrox here. We did this dive on April 4, 2005 so the pricing is still probably the same.

Things in their office were just a bit 'weird' for our whole experience. While we were putting on our wet suits, I asked their staff if they needed to see our C-cards or fill out any paperwork before we do the dive, and we were told "No, we are sure you are very good divers." So, nobody checked our C-cards, and we didn't fill out any waivers. It might have been different if we'd requested Nitrox I guess, as I imagine they would want to see a Nitrox cert for anyone they supply Nitrox to, but who knows?